As the digital age got us into it, Digital broadcasting is now more popular that our old techs are becoming obsolete. That might now hold true to everybody but in Norway, things are shifting now to an even more on digital age with the country becoming the first nation in the world to turn off its FM Radio broadcasting to give way to the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) service. A truly daring move for the nation and is being watched closely by its neighbors.

While everyone isn’t favor for the shift, supporters are saying that DAB offers better coverage and has a better audio quality than the traditional analog service. The technology also allow users and listeners to catch up programs that were missed and have them available on demand. With digital broadcasting, the cost of running the services is said to be much lesser and the platform is also a much better alternative for deploying and distributing emergency warning messages in time of crisis.

For many users, the moved to digital broadcast is a hassle, costly and inconvenient. One mostly affected are motorist, only a third of all cars running in the streets are equipped with digital receivers and that would cost 1,000 to 2,000 kroner (110 to 220 euros) for an adaptor or probably the best thing to do is purchase a new radio altogether, and for users at home means to get a new radio or subscribe to cable or satellite services to get access with digital stations.

As planned, the historic switch to digital happens on Wednesday in Nordland Norway at 11:11am and then on other areas of the country towards the end of the year.